Odds and ends: Cara Brindisi, r. chapel and James Dempsey

Music
Local songstress Cara Brindisi must have made an impression on singer-songwriter Chris Isaak a while back, because she's opening him for him again tonight at the Sunset Music Series in Newport, R.I. But that's not the only big news.

Brindisi also has a new video out for her song, “Okay,” and it's as lovely and understated as the song itself:

We're not entirely sure, but that sure looks like it was shot at Union Station.

Art
Worcester artist Doug Chapel, the creator of the cult-favorite comic strip “Action Geek,” has been busy lately. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, he'll be launching a book collecting 20 years' worth of his artwork in October, titled “Nonstop Action.”

Chapel's work has always been a lot of fun — whimsical sometimes, cynical at others, but always marked by a sort of unrelenting honesty and sometimes grudging moments of affection for the city around him. Also, he draws cool robots, which is always endearing.

And it seems creativity runs in the family, as his father, r. chapel, has an exhibition up at The Theatre Café on Main Street (home of my personal favorite French fires in the city.) The exhibition, called “Totemic Foamations,” is a wild collection of collages and assemblages, the sort of unsettling, nightmarish juxtapositions that arrest your attention immediately. The exhibition will be running for the rest of the month, so stop in and check it out.

Literature
Former Telegram & Gazette columnist James Dempsey can't seem to stay in one genre these days. From the scholarly “The Court Poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Facing-page Translation in Modern English,” to the undead tale, “Zakary's Zombies: A Fairy Tale,” Dempsey is a writer who just can't be pigeonholed. His most recent effort is the ebook, “Murphy's American Dream,” from Stay Thirsty Publishing.

The blurb describes the book as “comedy noir,” and likens it to “The Big Lebowski.” Which is actually extremely persuasive if you're a fan of The Dude, and things that abide. (And I am.) I've not had a chance to dig into it, yet, but Dempsey is the sort of writer it's worth taking a flyer on. Because if you don't like something he writes, odds are the next thing will be radically different.